Coach Pat Shurmur and the Browns are preparing for Thursday night's game against the Ravens in Baltimore.Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer

BEREA, Ohio

Cleveland Browns coach Pat Shurmur's Monday press conference

Shurmur: “I’ve
got nothing much more to add than I did last night in terms of this
past game. We’re obviously moving fast towards
playing the Ravens. What I will say is two three-and-outs, two punts
that gave them field position and two scoring drives makes it 14-0 and
until we become more explosive in all areas of our game, that’s a tough
way to start a game. Was our team ready to play?
Absolutely. Did we execute efficiently? Absolutely not. When you start a
game that way that’s what happens. I felt like, just like every week, I
thought our guys fought hard. We need to play better, we need to coach
better, we need to do everything better and
then we’ll win games. With that being said, the fact that it’s a short
week we sped up the process of correcting yesterday and we’re obviously
right now working on playing Baltimore on Thursday. As you know we’ll be
out there on the field today and we’ll have
to amp it up and get ready to go down and beat Baltimore who won last
night on the last play of the game. We all know they’re a good team and
they’re even better when they’re at home. It will be a big challenge for
us, but we need to go down there and do it.”

(On whether he expects to have Mohamed Massaquoi this week)-

Shurmur: “He’s going to be day to day. There’s not many days so we’ll see.”

(On whether Alex Smith will be able to play)-

Shurmur: “Day to day as well.”

(On
if one of the troubles of a Thursday night game is not having players
available that normally would play the next Sunday like possibly
Massaquoi)-

Shurmur: “I think that’s something we all deal with. I think injuries are
part of it and they hit teams in different ways and the schedule falls
the way it is and you’ve got to deal with it. There are no excuses and I
think that’s the way it is. Next guy up, if
he can’t go then Jordan Norwood’s ready to go.”

(On how disappointing it is not to be able to build off what was accomplished in Cincinnati)-

Shurmur: “I
wanted to build and win a game. That’s what
building is and we didn’t get that done. That’s what disappoints me, we
didn’t win. I think you saw the end of a lot of games where the coaches
could say they didn’t play well and they won and then there are some
games when teams felt like they played well
and they lost. It’s about winning games and that’s how you build.”

(On his reaction to how loud the Buffalo Bills fans were at the end of the game)-

Shurmur: “I would say this, we have to establish a winning tradition
at home and that won’t be the case. End of story.”

(On the reason why the defense is not playing as well as it did last year)-

Shurmur: “I
thought yesterday we could have done some things better with
our run fits and you guys can take that where you want. We had a couple
plays in the red zone where they executed well and we didn’t. Most of
their explosive plays came in the run game, simple run plays that we can
get corrected and then, of course, in the
red zone scoring plays, you have to eliminate that.”

(On whether he is considering more lineup changes for Thursday night)-

Shurmur: “We consider everything, but I thought Usama Young did a very nice job. I
thought (Tashaun) Gipson, when he was in there, played well. Those were the two changes there.”

(On
if he wanted Eric Hagg to sit and learn by watching the game and if
there is anything a player can learn from watching the game)-

Shurmur: “Yeah,
they need to. I think a player needs to learn every way possible.
Unfortunately, you have to deactivate certain players and he knew ahead
of time it was going to happen and he needs to learn from that. When you
put a roster together you consider everything
- their reps as a starter, their reps as a backup and then how they
contribute on special teams.”

(On if there are particular things he is looking for Hagg to get better at)-

Shurmur: “No, I’m not disappointed in his play. We’re trying to find the
right combination of guys to go in, that winning combination, and that’s why we did it.”

(On what is preventing Greg Little from being productive)-

Shurmur: “Greg is working extremely hard. Greg is extremely tough. Greg has got to be more
consistent catching the football. That’s it.”

(On whether Greg Little’s “posing” is wearing on him like it is wearing on everyone else)-

Shurmur: “Well,
I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’ve had my
conversations with him about that. That can be said. Now, whether people
see me ranting and raving on the sidelines at a player, trust me I have
my conversations with him.”

(On whether his conversations with Little took place before or after the Buffalo game)-

Shurmur: “All along I’ve had my conversations with him about all issues.”

(On whether he thinks Little is dedicated enough to being a good pro)-

Shurmur: “I do, he works hard.”

(On if drops were an issue with Little in college)-

Shurmur: “We didn’t see it. All receivers in college, nobody catches every single ball that’s been
thrown to him and as we know he didn’t play as a senior.”

(On what you do when guy like Little is dropping the ball)-

Shurmur: “We’ve
been working with him consistently - last year when we got him, through
the
offseason, through the preseason and of course each week. When he goes
out in the game, he’s got to catch the football. We have all the drills
we do, we have a long list of things that we practice and we need to get
better results. That’s the reality of it.”

(On if he would consider benching Little)-

Shurmur: “We’re
going to try to get the best combination of guys on the field at all
positions. We can’t play
a guy that’s going to drop footballs, but I will say this, we have a
young roster with young players and that’s the reality of it too. We
need to work with them and inspire them to play better. Now, am I
dealing with that and are we working with that as we
go along? Absolutely, but that’s not an excuse, that’s the reality so we
all need to do better.”

(On whether he is considering expanding Joshua Cribbs’ role on the offense)-

Shurmur: “He’s
had a role each week and he was in there a couple other times
when we didn’t get him the ball. I think he’s been very productive with
his returns and I think of those as offensive plays as well.”

(On what he has learned from seeing different guys playing in the secondary)-

Shurmur: “We’re
looking for the right combination, that’s what I’ve learned.
In the last two weeks we haven’t found it yet so we’ll just keep
working. I do think we saw some things yesterday that encouraged us.
Usama Young is back, he was injured to start the year. I thought he
played a physical game at safety. I thought he did some
things that we needed to see from him so that’s good. The combination of
he and T.J. (Ward) and then (Tashaun) Gipson in there a little bit,
that combination of those three guys, in my opinion at the safety
position, we learned something good there.”

(On if he can say that big plays given up were because the team is so young)-

Shurmur: “No,
I think when you see correctable mistakes of things you’ve
practiced, some of it’s because of youth, but I think they’re all
players. We’re a quarter of a way into this season now so in my mind
their not rookies anymore.”

(On whether Reggie Hodges’ Achilles injury is affecting him)-

Shurmur: “I don’t know. I think that’s something to be considered. I think we need to play better
at all positions including that one.”

(On whether the Bills’ first touchdown was a result of a breakdown of communication in the Browns defense)-

Shurmur: “No, they ran a screen and they crossed
the formation. We’ve got to cover. That wasn’t a new play. There’s no communication there.”

(On T.J. Ward saying after the game that the defense is having communication problems)-

Shurmur: “Did he say that? Okay, well you’ll have to ask him
to follow that up. I watched the tape and see where there are breakdowns. I don’t know if that’s the case.”

(On how close Phil Taylor is to practicing again)-

Shurmur: “He’s
getting close. In a couple of weeks here he’ll be out there. There are
rules about
that of course in terms of when we can bring him back, but he’s getting
close. He’s doing all of his rehab and getting himself as ready as he
can be not being on the field.”

Shurmur: “You’re
always disappointed when you lose, because there’s a
great deal of effort that goes into it. I’ve said it before, gameday
never gets old. You go out there with the idea that you’re going to play
well for 60 minutes and win a football game so they’re disappointed.
Now, the professional reality of it is, you have
to put that aside, make your corrections and move forward. That’s where I
want them to be. Should they be upset? Absolutely. Should they be
discouraged? Absolutely not. Should they be disappointed? Sure, we all
are. That’s where you’re at. You cannot be discouraged,
you just keep fighting. I look and we’ve got 13 games left. It’s about
winning your division, so you can get into the playoffs. Nobody in our
division has won all their games. We’ve got a division opponent on the
road with a great opportunity to get the ship
righted on Thursday night.”

(On whether he worries at all that losing becomes acceptable to the players)-

Shurmur: “Nope
because the locker room is right. We’ve got the right kind of
guys. I don’t worry about them getting discouraged. I don’t worry about
the locker room because I know what the message is, and I watch them day
in and day out go to work. I don’t worry about that.”

(On whether Alex Smith’s absence is a reason for the difficulty they had blocking)-

Shurmur: “Alex
is a tough guy and he does a good job for us when he’s
in there. I wouldn’t say the tight ends blocked poorly in his absence.
We went and used different personnel groupings a little bit more because
we only had two tight ends. I think generally speaking, we’ve just all
got to do a better job, whether you’re an
offensive lineman or you’re blocking the perimeter. I think it’s fair to
say we have to play better.”

(On the lack of a running game)-

Shurmur: “We’ve
got to get more out of it. I think it’s fair to say that. Especially
early in the game, you want to
be able to run and throw the ball when you want to. We were faced for
most of the middle of the game there down by 14. Ideally, you would like
to be able to get ahead by halftime, be ahead. Then you can lean on the
running game a little bit more in the third
and fourth quarters. That’s the ideal situation. When the game does not
play out that way, then the numbers get skewed a little bit. Trent
(Richardson) had 12 rushes, but we threw him the ball, so he had 18
touches, more than anybody else. That happens.”

(On six yards being the longest rushing gain)-

Shurmur: “Right. We’ve got to get more out of it. We didn’t have any explosive runs.”

(On whether the two short passes near the 50-yard line were check downs)-

Shurmur: “One was a screen, which is a solid first/second down call, a screen pass,
against a defensive line that’s pretty good at getting pressure.”

(On if the pass to Benjamin Watson was a check down)-

Shurmur: “No, we were trying to throw him the football.”

(On whether Weeden was responsible for some of the sacks by not getting the ball out quick enough)-

Shurmur: “No,
I’ve always felt sacks are a team thing. There
are times when you tend to hold the ball a little bit and we don’t want
to be doing that. There are times when, we had some third and long, long
situations, which you need to avoid. However you get there, you don’t
want to be in those situations.”

(On Weeden saying he played well aside from his interceptions)-

Shurmur: “We’ve all got to play better. I would be disappointed if he was walking around
saying he played well. We’ve all got to play better.”

(On what the toughest part of the Sunday to Thursday schedule is)-

Shurmur: “I
think we all deal with it now in the league. We are used to this
calendar.
I’ve been used to it other places I’ve been. You’ve got to just amp it
up, get your plan in. You tend to see teams doing things that are - I
wouldn’t say fundamental and basic - but things they’ve been working on
all year. We’ve had all year to watch Baltimore
so it’s not like we’re surprised by a Thursday night game. We know it’s
here.”

(On Jordan Cameron)-

Shurmur: “I
thought he showed up and did some good things. There were some things,
by the way they played defense, where we felt
like there were some tight end throws we could make. He had an
opportunity on a go ball in the red zone there that you saw. That would
have made it a great day. I thought he made progress.”

(On Cameron being a big target with good hands)-

Shurmur: “He’s got skill and ability to be a receiver and he’s improving as a blocker.”

(On whether Cameron slowed up on the go route)-

Shurmur: “No, he was running fast.”

(On what he’s seen from Travis Benjamin)-

Shurmur: “He’s
got good hands and he’s fast. We’ve found ways in every game to try to
get him the ball, whether
it be reverses or attempts to throw it to him. He had his opportunity.
He dropped one yesterday, right in his hands. He’s like everybody else,
when they throw it to, you’ve got to catch it. I think he runs extremely
fast. He’s displayed an ability to catch
the football. He gets us in the end zone, which he did. I think that’s
the important thing. Trent ran the ball in the end zone, which is good.
We threw a ball to Travis, where he got us in the end zone. That’s good,
that’s what you want.”

(On whether the punt coverage was different against Buffalo than the one against
Adam Jones in Cincinnati and what he told his guys to do)-

Shurmur: “When
you have an outstanding return man, you want the ball to go there and
over there, and then you cover it. It all is coordinated. If it’s the
ball not where it needs to be at the right time, and your coverage has
break downs, then you get plays. In terms of what
we’re telling our guys to do, we just need to get better.”

(On if Weeden didn’t have enough open receivers during the game)-

Shurmur: “I think we had guys open. Again, everything’s coordinated, so he can throw
in rhythm. He had some inaccurate throws in my opinion.”

(On whether he talked to Greg Little about his dropped passes yesterday)-

Shurmur: “How many did he drop? He dropped a pass.”

(On what the next step is after talking to a player like Little)-

Shurmur: “We’ll see, but I think the false interpretation of all of this is he’s not
being worked with. Trust me, he’s being worked with.”

(On whether he will change what they do pregame to make sure they don’t come out flat)-

Shurmur: “I
don’t think we came out flat. Did we execute well? No.
But flat? I don’t believe in that term. Our guys were ready to play
hard. We just didn’t play well. We always look at ways to get a faster
start, that’s for sure, but I don’t think we were flat. We didn’t play
well.”

(On Cribbs being on the third team and not getting a ton of reps)-

Shurmur: “He’s not a third teamer. He’s in the game. I know what you’re getting at
- put him in the lineup more? Throw him more balls? All good ideas. I know what you’re getting at.”

(On whether Cribbs will be in more as a receiver)-

Shurmur: “We’ll see what we can do. Again, each week is different. As I mentioned, he does a good job with
the returns, and in my opinion those are offensive plays.”

(On whether Weeden is over and under throwing some deeper sideline passes)-

Shurmur: “When
you get opportunities to throw the ball down the field, we’ve got
to hit on them. It’s a combination of things between the receiver and
the quarterback. I would say it’s safe to say that we’re taking more of
those shots this year than we did last year, now we’ve got to hit on
them better. You only get a couple of them a game
and the ones you get, you’ve got to hit on them.”

(On whether Weeden needs more loft on throws)-

Shurmur: “Each throw is a little bit different, depending on where help might be, whether it’s a safety or
the relationship of the receiver to the defender.”

(On whether Weeden is still adjusting to it being windy here)-

Shurmur: “No, it was pretty windy in Stillwater. He’s alright. He understands all that.”

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